Hill 1 Process Paper For this years National History Day Competition, Leadership and Legacy in History, I wanted to research a topic currently in the public eye. I decided to research the Selma to Montgomery Marches, following the release of the movie Selma in 2014 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the marches that altered the pathway of African-American suffrage in America. In my initial research, I pinpointed the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as the source of the effectiveness of the Selma Marches in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I began my research by interviewing a professor at my local university, Doctor Matt Harris, a professor of American history at the Colorado State University Pueblo campus. After Doctor Harris provided me with an overview of my topic, I broadened my research to legal documents, archives, and books. I also utilized several timelines to give me an overview of my topic. I finally expanded my research to pictures, graphs, and quotations to supplement and illustrate my research on my website. I attempted to contact several professors; several didnt respond, but Brenda Plummer, David Carter, Michael Mayer, and Kerry Pimblott answered questions. My most valuable primary resource is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committees report on Bloody Sunday, and my most valuable secondary source is Doctor Matt Harris. To display my topic, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Selma to Montgomery Marches, I chose to create a website. Websites are more pliable in terms of the presentation of information than the other given project

Hill 2 types, and I felt a website could convey my topic and research the most efficiently. By creating a website, I could easily differentiate the various subtopics within my broadened research, which is very advantageous to both the viewer and myself. Through graphics and imaging coupled with the presentation of text and media, a website could present my research the most effectively and efficiently. This topic, the Southern Christian Leadership conference and their efforts to enact legislation to make African-American suffrage in the southern United States more obtainable, clearly relates to this years theme, Leadership and Legacy in History. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference provided the invaluable leadership, through the Selma to Montgomery Marches, to pressure the United States government into passing legislation to allow African-Americans the right to unobstructed voter registration. Through the efforts of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, their organization of the Selma Marches, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the United States entered an era in which African-Americans have the freedom to vote for the people that govern them. This right allows African-Americans to speak out for their needs and, more importantly, to take action against the suppression of their rights. Many prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement understood the importance of the vote; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference provided the leadership necessary to gain that right and to provide a legacy in which African-Africans have an empowered and important voice. Word Count: 499